Spotify’s podcast push actually began in 2017. During a test in Germany, the company noticed a music publisher had posted audiobooks and other content on the service. Over time, it became popular, and Spotify realized it might be on to something.

“We realized that [for] people who were already in love with Spotify for music, it’s a natural evolution to offer something complimentary to music on the service,” Vice President and Global Head of Spotify Studios Courtney Holt explained. “Podcasts are just a great complimentary product.” Holt said the company realized the first step was to expand its catalog. And in 2018, it began to do just that.

In October 2018, the service opened up its podcast section to everyone. As part of the Spotify for Podcasters program, creators could post their shows from their aggregator or host. In return, the streaming service promised valuable data on performance, audience demographics, followers, listener locations and engagement. It was a sign of what was in store for 2019: Spotify had flung its gates open wide, and it was ready to make podcasts a bigger piece of its audio offering — and its business.

“We were testing a lot in 2018,” Holt continued. “We thought we would actually be able to achieve our goals, so it was like: ‘Okay, now we’re ready to scale.’ But there was a good year plus learning that went into it.”

In February, the company made its two biggest podcast moves of the year. In that earnings report, Spotify announced it was acquiring Gimlet Media, the production company behind popular shows like StartUp, Reply All, Crimetown and The Pitch. The company also revealed that it had purchased Anchor, a service that helps creators record, host, distribute and, most importantly, monetize podcasts. With apps for iOS, Android, iPad and desktop web, Anchor streamlines the process so that anyone can feel like they, too, can be a podcast star. In one swipe, Spotify had picked up one of the biggest podcast producers to pad its library and create new shows, while also locking down an easy-to-use production suite for prospective creators.

Anchor wasn’t the first audio production suite Spotify had acquired, though. In 2017, it purchased Soundtrap, an online collaborative music studio. The move was a bit of a head-scratcher at first, but in May, Soundtrap for Storytellers debuted. Essentially, Soundtrap tweaked its formula for audio editing and cloud-based collaboration to cater specifically to podcast creators. Spotify now had two user-friendly platforms literally anyone could use to make a show. And, of course, they could push it to the streaming service for the world to hear.

“Growing podcast listening on Spotify is an important strategy for driving top of funnel growth, increased user engagement, lower churn, faster revenue growth and higher margins,” the company said in the earnings report. “We intend to lean into this strategy in 2019, both to acquire exclusive content and to increase investment in the production of content in-house.”

And it leaned in quickly. A month after announcing its big Gimlet/Anchor acquisitions, Spotify announced a deal for Paracast, another popular podcast production company that was quickly becoming a rising star on the charts. With Paracast, Spotify got a studio that checked two very important boxes. First, at the time, Paracast had 18 true crime shows that were already tapping into our collective fascination with murder-mystery and conspiracy theory podcasts. Second, Paracast was churning out new episodes faster than a lot of the competition. The studio had nine weekly or bi-weekly shows, so the steady stream of content was more of a fire hose.

“When you lay out all the components of podcasting, at the simplest level, what we’ve done is we’ve built what I think is a really defensible position by bringing all these things together,” Holt said. “Laid out over the course of the year, it feels like a sequence of events, but we were sort of doing these things all at the same time.”

Acquisitions weren’t the only major podcast deals Spotify signed this year. It also locked down some big names exclusively for its content library. The biggest of which was the Obamas. In June, the service signed an agreement with their production company Higher Ground for multiple shows covering a range of topics. Of course, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, are both slated to appear on some of those.

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There are also less headline-grabbing exclusives, like the sports-focused show Riggle’s Picks, starring comedians Rob Riggle and Sarah Tiana. Exclusives weren’t a new adventure to Spotify in 2019 — it had already amassed shows like The Joe Budden Podcast, Jemele Hill Is Unbothered and Amy Schumer Presents. But snapping up high-profile names that would only appear in its podcast list is something you can expect Spotify to continue doing in 2020 and beyond.

In fact, Spotify has already begun to reveal some of its plans for 2020. You can expect shows from Jordan Peele and Mark Wahlberg, and the service has announced that popular true crime comedy show Last Podcast on the Left will be an exclusive next year. There’s also scripted true crime comedy The Case of Adirondack Rose from executive producer Paul Feig’s (Ghostbusters, Bridesmaids) Powederkeg production company and writer Amy Reed (The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World, The Nowhere Girls).

Of course, there’s always a concern when you hear the term “exclusive,” especially when it comes to audio or visual content you might want to stream. Holt explained that the idea was never to lock down Gimlet shows or podcasts from other studios it acquired on its own service.

The series features big names, including Alan Cumming (The Good Wife), Carrie Coon (Fargo, Gone Girl), Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones), Lucas Hedges (Manchester By The Sea), Tavi Gevinson (Rookie Magazine founder) and more. It also has an original score by the indie-rock band Warpaint. The plot follows a single mother who starts phishing over the phone as part of an identity theft ring.

Scripted fiction podcasts haven’t made it to the mainstream yet, but there have been some breakout successes — Welcome to Night Vale and Limetown. Spotify is clearly trying to make the model work and betting that its star-studded cast will help. All Motherhacker episodes are available today on Spotify.

Luminary was launched with the idea of offering high-quality, curated podcasts in an $8 per month subscription. At the same time, it also has a free tier with podcasts that are available around the web, exactly like Overcast, Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps. The company has previously stated that it wants to eschew advertising and become “the Netflix of podcasts.”

However, the free tier seems to have alienated podcast creators, much as Spotify did with recording artists. PodcastOne, which has a 300 show portfolio, railed publicly against it. “Since Luminary’s focus has been promoted solely as a paid subscription model, we were surprised to see them also use the free model which they have spoken negatively about and compete against,” said executive chairman Norm Pattiz. “If they want to reach our audience to promote their site, then they should do the ‘unthinkable’ and advertise in our podcasts as hundreds of other advertisers do.”

Meanwhile, The Joe Rogan Experience cited licensing as the reason it asked to be removed from Luminary. “There was not a license agreement or permission for Luminary to have The Joe Rogan Experience on their platform,” a representative told Hot Pod News. “His reps were surprised to see the show there today and requested it be removed.”

Luminary has said that it used a “pass-through” proxy approach to feeds in order to speed up streaming, not deprive creators of audience data. It has since made adjustments to how it processes the audio in an effort to address creators’ complaints. It gave the following statement to The Verge:

Luminary appreciates the feedback we’ve received today about how our technology works. We’ve heard you and want to explain what we have done in response. To be absolutely clear: Luminary has never hosted or cached audio content for any open RSS feed podcast. We used a pass-through approach purely because we believed it would improve performance and speed for our users when listening to public feed audio files, particularly from smaller hosts.

We now see that this approach caused some confusion. We have spoken with multiple hosting providers who suggested changes we could make to clarify that public feed audio is not being hosted or cached by Luminary, and ensure that hosts receive the data to which they are accustomed. We have already implemented those changes for iOS and Android, and are working to retool web player settings.

That seemed to satisfy some creators, including Exponent creator Ben Thompson, who tweeted “I have no issue with Luminary’s business model. I simply want my content and feed respected, and it is now.” Other have said that the biggest issue was a lack of transparency on Luminary’s part. “[I] probably would have added our show to Luminary if they had just asked, but instead I’m here making a takedown request,” tweeted Charged Tech podcast creator Owen Williams.

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HBO’s insanely popular epic concludes in April, but the battle to film the battles, and to keep them from being leaked ahead of time, was a constant struggle for the crew. Entertainment Weekly goes behind the scenes of the final season and offers a spoiler-free primer ahead of its debut in a few weeks.